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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26649586">You've Changed</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/fauxtales/pseuds/fauxtales'>fauxtales</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Arguing, Canon Compliant, Complicated Relationships, Established Relationship, Growing Apart, M/M, Non-Graphic Violence, Sad Ending, anger issues</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 09:55:46</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>4,751</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26649586</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/fauxtales/pseuds/fauxtales</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Axel doesn’t know when he first started noticing the changes in Saïx. They're starting to become too much.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Axel/Saïx (Kingdom Hearts)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>You've Changed</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Axel doesn’t know when he first started noticing the changes in Saïx. He certainly doesn’t know when they started, what it was that triggered them. It’s not as if they have all the time in the world to hang out anymore; Xemnas keeps them busy, even when there doesn’t seem to be anything much that they need to do. And besides, Saïx is so busy trying to get closer to Xemnas, to advance the plan, he hardly has time to spend with Axel. It’s not strange.</p>
<p>No, what’s strange is the way Saïx snaps at Axel so easily. The way he seems to not be listening half the time, and knows too much the other half. The way Xigbar hovers around him as if he’s watching for something and Axel doesn’t know what it could be, but he doesn’t like the look in Xigbar’s eyes. The way Saïx seems to spend all of his free time with the Superior, doing hell-knows-what.</p>
<p>Then Saïx goes berserk for the first time and Axel has to admit to himself that something might have gone terribly wrong.</p>
<p>It’s horrifying to see. Terrible to watch. Saïx tears through Heartless and Nobodies alike, seemingly unaware of the difference as he fights off their attacks. The Nobodies aren’t attacking him, of course, they’re on the same side, but Saïx doesn’t seem to be aware of that as he brings his claymore down on Shadow and Berserker alike and suddenly Axel understands why those are the ones Saïx is in charge of. Why he’s connected to them.</p>
<p>When the glow of yellow rage finally drains from Saïx’s eyes and he drops to the floor, Vexen is the first to step forward. This was supposed to be a contained trial, just another of the many attempts to see how well each of them could control their armies of lesser Nobodies. At some point however, Saïx snapped and it turned into something else. Turned into a massacre.</p>
<p>Axel glances at Xemnas. He looks thrilled, in that muted way that he has. Axel feels a cold shiver run down his spine.</p>
<p>Saïx always had a bit of a temper. Axel knew about that; it’s something that existed in their Somebodies as well, before they couldn’t feel. He had thought that maybe without too much emotions running rampant in their bodies, Saïx wouldn’t be able to be blinded by his rage. Surely, that can’t be possible. But as Axel watches the darkness of slain Heartless dissipate from the training room, he can’t help but think that he must have been wrong.</p>
<p>Not that Saïx will ever admit to having a temper. When Axel checks in on him later that evening, Saïx brushes him off like he always does. He insists that it’s impossible. Whatever happened was something else entirely, something Axel shouldn’t concern himself with.</p>
<p>“Shouldn’t concern myself? Are you kidding?” Axel follows Saïx into his bedroom without asking permission. Saïx glares but doesn’t bother to say anything. “You completely lost yourself! You didn’t see what it looked like, as if you were being dragged around by that weapon of yours. It was terrifying!”</p>
<p>“You can’t feel fear, Axel,” Saïx states. He’s busy shuffling papers on his desk, as if going through the reports of the day is more important than talking about what happened. If Axel didn’t know he couldn’t feel anger, he would say Saïx is infuriating.</p>
<p>“That’s not the point.” Axel grabs Saïx’s shoulder and drags him around to look at him. Blue eyes flash in something that Axel would swear is annoyance. “What if that happens on a mission? You weren’t in control and you don’t even know what caused it. That’s a problem.”</p>
<p>“A problem you don’t have to worry about.” Saïx shoves Axel’s hand off his shoulder. Axel takes a step back, accepting the rejection reluctantly. “Now leave me be. I have work to finish.” With that, Saïx turns back to his desk, continuing on his task as if Axel no longer exists. Axel hesitates a moment longer before leaving. There’s no point in talking to Saïx when he’s like this. He won’t get anywhere, and besides, something about Saïx has become unsettling. Axel needs to get some distance to try to understand this.</p>
<p>He could have sworn he saw flecks of gold in the blue of Saïx’s eyes.</p>
<p>----</p>
<p>“You’re my entire world.”</p>
<p>It’s a phrase that seemed to have so much meaning when their world was small. When the world is little more than a single town, it’s not hard to declare that someone is the entirety of it. Your concept of “the world” is so very limited after all and there are only so many people within it.</p>
<p>When you have a fight, there’s only so far away you can get from each other. When you’re sad, it’s only a block or two of travel before you can be in each other’s arms, finding comfort. When you’re lonely, it’s likely you’ll run into each other soon enough. And when that person goes away, it feels like all of the world has dulled and turned grey.</p>
<p>For most, the realization that there’s more to the world outside of your one small town is already such a revelation. There’s an entire planet, many more towns and cities and villages out there to find people in. The ocean is wide and the world is more than just the walls of a town.</p>
<p>But most people will settle in one place eventually anyway, and their world will shrink down again to the size of the town they are in and the interactions they have on a day to day basis. They might explore outside of that sometimes, when they have the time and are feeling adventurous, but it won’t be often enough to say their world is all that big.</p>
<p>Lea’s world was so small, until it wasn’t.</p>
<p>The small world that Lea knew was ripped away from him faster than he ever thought possible. He lost his home, he lost his heart, he lost his name. All these things are so important to his world, and they were taken in one fell swoop.</p>
<p>The one thing he retained became his new world. Saïx kept him sane, kept him from burning the entire Castle That Never Was to the nonexistent ground. Saïx helped him find a new purpose in their now purposeless and impossible existence. Saïx was Axel’s entire world.</p>
<p>It’s very lonely, when a single person is your entire world. Granted, the world that Axel existed in was so much bigger than the world Lea existed in, but most of it wasn’t his. It was a series of hostile cities and strange lands, people with hearts that he could never connect with and was likely sent to destroy anyway. Axel felt that his job became that of setting up worlds to be destroyed, and that’s not a very welcoming place to be in.</p>
<p>The flecks of gold slowly overtake Saïx’s eyes. Axel’s world begins to change right in front of him, in a new way that he doesn’t understand and he is powerless to stop it. Whether Saïx is aware of the changes, Axel doesn’t know, but they are evident enough in his actions.</p>
<p>Saïx’s temper becomes short. He’s never had the longest fuse, but it was longer than Axel’s - Lea was always the one ready to catch flame at a moment’s notice and Axel has become a bomb with a perpetually lit fuse - but as time goes on, Saïx seems to get annoyed quicker and quicker. It rarely makes it to that terrifying rage that Axel saw in the berserker form that Xemnas drew out of him, but it’s enough to put a wedge between them.</p>
<p>Axel’s world is fracturing and he doesn’t know what to do.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Saïx continues on as if nothing has changed. He doesn’t want to talk about how his eyes have changed color, seemingly doesn’t notice the way his ears have grown pointed. Axel traces over the lines of the X on Saïx’s face one night, in the rare moment they have alone and Saïx stops fighting him long enough to allow them to be close again. Saïx clutches at Axels hand and pulls it away, tension written across his face.</p>
<p>“Don’t.”</p>
<p>The strain in his voice breaks Axel’s heart. He feels a shake in his hands that he doesn’t know how to stop.</p>
<p>Without a heart, without feelings, Axel doesn’t know how he’s supposed to react. His first impulse is to push back, to try to get Saïx to open up to him again; but Saïx never seems to respond to that. It just pushes him farther and farther away, into a darkness that Axel cannot understand. Into Xemnas’s hands.</p>
<p>“I miss you.” The words are out of Axel’s mouth before he can stop them or think them through. They are the truth, more true than anything Axel has said to Saïx in a while, and he’s sure the honesty comes through from the break in his voice. Saïx doesn’t look at him at first, still staring at Axel’s hand clutched tight in his. The air between them is thick with something that Axel finds absolutely terrifying.</p>
<p>“I’m right here.” Saïx’s voice is steady and calm as always. Remarkably so, considering their current situation. “We see each other every day, how can you possibly miss me?”</p>
<p>“But you’re not.” Axel shakes his head. He can’t bring himself to look up at Saïx, can’t bring himself to try to find whatever thoughts Saïx is keeping hidden behind those golden eyes. Extracting his hand from Saïx’s grip somehow feels like the hardest thing Axel has ever done. There is a finality to it he doesn’t want to acknowledge. “You’re not… you, anymore. You’ve gone and become someone else and I don’t know who that is. I wish you would come back to me, but you’re lost and I…”</p>
<p>The end of that sentence is as much a mystery to Axel as it will ever be to Saïx. It doesn’t matter either way; Saïx clearly doesn’t want to hear it. He is standing up off Axel’s bed with breathtaking speed, crossing to the door without so much as a glance at his partner.</p>
<p>“Saïx, wait-”</p>
<p>“Perhaps it is you who has changed, Axel.” Saïx pauses in the doorway. He turns his head fractionally toward Axel, but doesn’t look back. “You’ve lost sight of our goal and let yourself be shaped by strangers. It’s pitiful, really. When will you grow a spine?”</p>
<p>Time seems to slow down as Axel stares at Saïx’s shoulders in his doorway, frozen. He has no response to this, can’t summon the anger that he wants to throw back at Saïx. Maybe he has changed, maybe Axel has let other people affect him; but Saïx has as well. There’s no way to deny it. Looking in the mirror is all it should take for him to see. </p>
<p>But Axel can’t make himself say any of that. Instead, he watches as Saïx steps out into the hallway, and closes the door behind him. Axel swears that if he still had a heart, the sound of the door clicking into place would echo the sound of it breaking.</p>
<p>----</p>
<p>“Billions of people in the world and I chose you.” They’re fighting again. It seems to happen more and more these days. Axel can feel an empty ache in his chest and he glares at Saïx in an attempt to ignore it. Saïx stares at him impassively as always.</p>
<p>“How stupid was that? I mean, I could have just left this world to find a different one, picked anyone else in this apparently infinite world, but instead!” The bitter laugh that escapes Axel’s chest is humorless. It hurts. “No, instead I had to follow you down your rabbit hole! I chose to stay and let you use me for whatever you see fit! I have more blood on my hands than you can imagine and yet you want more? Fuck off.”</p>
<p>“Axel, they need to be taken care of.” It’s as if Saïx can’t hear the anger in Axel’s voice. Axel supposes that it is fake after all, so he can’t really blame Saïx for ignoring it. The heat of his voice has little meaning when he can’t actually feel. “These are orders directly from the Superior, do you really expect-”</p>
<p>“Oh are they?” Axel bites, all sarcasm and feigned surprise. His hands find his hips as he leans in toward Saïx, bearing his teeth in a smile that is more threat than mirth. “Well thank goodness! That makes everything better!” That bitter laugh comes back as Axel throws his head back, talking more to the ceiling than Saïx. Maybe Xigbar is up there eavesdropping on them. Might as well give him a show. “I wouldn’t want to murder my own coworkers on a whim, after all.”</p>
<p>“You’re being ridiculous.” Saïx turns away from him, forgotten irritation starting to work through that forced blankness of his. He begins shuffling papers on the desk in front of him, clearly trying to end the conversation without a resolution. Axel feels the tug to push further, see how much memory of emotion he can pull out of his “best friend.”</p>
<p>“I’m being ridiculous?” The distance between them closes in two short strides as Axel comes up behind Saïx. He grabs the shorter man by the forearms, leaning close so he can find Saïx’s face from over his shoulder. The tension between them as Axel presses Saïx against his desk and hisses in his ear is palpable. “You’re the one adding names to my kill list without bothering to consult me or the Superior. If I’m being ridiculous, you’re being downright mutinous.”</p>
<p>Saïx’s shoulders are rigid. Axel knows that was a low blow and he savors every moment of it. It seems the only semblance of emotion or attention he can get from Saïx these days is anger after all, and he’s taught himself to have a nearly pavlovian response to it by now. Saïx’s hands are gripping the edge of the desk like he might snap it in half and Axel’s breath catches in his throat.</p>
<p>He hates that this is what they’ve become.</p>
<p>“Have you no self control?” Saïx hisses, twisting around in an attempt to look Axel in the face. The taller man doesn’t let him, instead tightening his grip and forcing Saïx’s shoulders to remain facing forward. For once, Axel feels like he has some sort of control in fact. With how powerful Saïx has become since wielding his claymore, who knows how long that will last.</p>
<p>“I am in perfect control,” Axel declares. He presses in closer, wanting to push Saïx into the desk and hoping the hard wood cuts into his hips as much as Saïx’s words cut into Axel’s heart. Or rather, the hole where it’s supposed to be. “I know exactly what I am doing and have made the fully conscious decision to do it. Can you say the same?”</p>
<p>“And what, pray tell, are you trying to do?” The grate in Saïx’s voice runs all the way down Axel’s spine.</p>
<p>“Piss you off.”</p>
<p>Apparently, that’s enough to make Saïx snap. There is a loud crack as the desk between Saïx’s hands splinters, followed close behind by the glow of Saïx’s rage manifesting as power crackling across his skin. Axel just has time to catch the gold overflowing from Saïx’s eyes before he’s thrown back roughly. The wall hits his back and all the breath leaves Axel’s lungs in a rush.</p>
<p>Saïx’s hand is at Axel’s throat in a matter of seconds. It’s not enough to wipe the growing smirk from his lips.</p>
<p>“Are you trying to get yourself killed?” Saïx snarls, fangs mere inches from Axel’s face. He doesn’t know when Saïx’s shoulders got so broad, but like this, boxed in against the wall, Axel manages to feel very small. He brings one hand up to grip Saïx’s wrist, gritting his teeth as he sucks in a harsh breath.</p>
<p>“Maybe. Haven’t really thought about it.” It’s more honest a statement than Axel would like to admit, but it hangs between them regardless. For a moment, Saïx doesn’t move, merely holds Axel against the wall and lets the silence grow between them. Axel stares into blank golden eyes and wonders if he could ever really escape from the grip Saïx has on him.</p>
<p>Oh, how they’ve changed.</p>
<p>“You’re disgusting,” Saïx says. His grip on Axel’s throat falls away, along with the glow of berserker. Saïx steps back and Axel finds that for once he’s grateful to the distance; it allows him the space to gasp in an adequate amount of air and rub at the bruises forming on his throat. By the time his swimming vision refocuses, Saïx has turned back to his desk again. This time, Axel finds he’s okay with that.</p>
<p>“Guess that makes two of us.” Axel isn’t really sure what he means, but that hardly matters. He’s disgusted by this whole interaction, by this place they’ve landed themselves in, by the man that was once his entire world. Still is his entire world. Somewhere along the way it all became so warped and now Axel can’t recognize either of them.</p>
<p>He leaves Saïx there. Leaves him to stew in his thoughts and his plans and his intentions. Axel can’t recognize them anymore, so there’s no point in being around to see them.</p>
<p>It’s all incomprehensible to him now anyway.</p>
<p>----</p>
<p>Axel goes to Castle Oblivion. He kills or sets up the deaths of everyone on Saïx’s list, ensuring his position next to Xemnas is never threatened, and no one is around to see the blood on Axel’s hands.</p>
<p>If anyone questions why Axel is the only survivor, well… He always has been hard to kill.</p>
<p>The whole situation leaves Axel feeling dirty. Violated, somehow. He saw Roxas in that Sora kid - or maybe it’s Sora who he always saw in Roxas. It’s a strange sort of relationship that he has with them both and not one he likes to think about too closely. If Saïx had his way, it wouldn’t exist at all. </p>
<p>Axel doesn’t return to the Castle right away. In fact, he doesn’t even report that he survived right away; that comes later. Weeks later, in fact. He wanders the World, the worlds that he has forsworn in order to stay by Saïx’s side. He thinks about all that they left behind by becoming Xehanort’s apprentices. He thinks about all they lost. All they gained.</p>
<p>Was it worth it?</p>
<p>They wanted to help a girl. But it doesn’t feel like they’ve gotten any closer; in fact, it seems to Axel like they’ve gotten much farther away than they realized. Some days, Axel isn’t even sure that Saïx remembers their goal is something more than Kingdom Hearts.</p>
<p>Wandering the worlds, looking for an answer to questions he can’t even find the courage to vocalize, Axel feels empty. More empty than he has in years, more empty than he has felt since he first became a Nobody. That initial moment, when he woke up without a heart warm in his chest, was the emptiest moment. Axel was so sure that he would never feel like that again, that the habits and memory would keep him at least somewhat less blank than that first day. Roxas wasn’t the only one who woke up as a zombie.</p>
<p>But now, without orders and a mission, without Saïx hovering over his shoulder, without Xigbar a step away to keep him in line, Axel is aimless. Untethered from the world that used to be his and completely lost. He thought that getting some time to think, to sort through the ache in his chest and the thoughts that plague him day in and day out, he might find something more to all of this.</p>
<p>Instead, he finds that he just misses Saïx pulling the strings all the more. He doesn’t have a goal without Saïx there to tell him what to do, doesn’t know what he’s for. A Nobody is already a husk; Axel thought he had managed to retain enough to be a bit more than that even without the Organization, without Saïx. He was wrong.</p>
<p>Axel returns to the Castle That Never Was. Roxas is thrilled, relieved that he’s okay and excited to see his friend again. He’s made a new friend in Axel’s absence, Number XIV. Axel feels more unsettled by her than before, by the way her voice sounds so much like Sora’s to his ears now, but tries not to let Roxas see. The kid needs something good in this bleak existence.</p>
<p>Saïx is not happy with him. When Axel finally reports in, Saïx stands stoically by his desk and stares him down. His arms are crossed firmly over his chest and disapproval radiates from his every pore. Axel is fairly certain that this report should be given in front of Xigbar and Xemnas as well, but Saïx insisted on getting the unadulterated version himself first. No matter what has happened between the two of them so far, Axel finds that he still can’t say no.</p>
<p>No matter what, Saïx is still his best friend. Or so Axel hopes. It’s hard to tell these days.</p>
<p>After all, the look on Saïx’s face is akin to a glare and Axel knows that he fucked up. He doesn’t know precisely what he did to earn Saïx’s ire this time, but he’s sure it was nothing good. Surely not reporting in for a few extra weeks wouldn’t piss Saïx off this bad?</p>
<p>When Axel finishes, silence descends. Axel waits - not quite patiently, but there’s nothing he could do to make Saïx speak before he is ready. So instead he stares at the grey of the wall behind Saïx’s head and waits for the verdict.</p>
<p>“...You haven’t explained to me why you didn’t report in.” Saïx’s voice is quiet and all the more terrifying for it. Axel dares to look at Saïx’s face. He finds only the nothing he expects. “If everyone in the castle was gone, what in the world could have taken you so long?”</p>
<p>They already had this argument. Saïx had said something about sending everyone they no longer needed to Castle Oblivion, and hadn’t answered Axel when asked if he was one of the ones Saïx hadn’t wanted to come back. That interaction still clung to Axel’s chest like a thorn, hanging over him with a pain that he didn’t think a Nobody should be able to feel.</p>
<p>“What’s it matter to you?” Axel lets his tension go - in appearance, at least - falling back on the sarcasm and bitterness that has kept him alive all these years. “I thought you wanted everyone on that trip to go down in flames! I thought you’d be thrilled to get me out of your hair for a bit too. It’s not as if I ran off to tell the Superior all about your little treason.”</p>
<p>Saïx’s already sour expression darkens. “That is not what I want. I wanted you to complete the task given to you and report in as soon as it was done. Instead you got to the castle and left me with nothing but radio silence for weeks. For all I knew, you could have died and the reports from the dusks could have been falsified by that traitor Marluxia.”</p>
<p>“He doesn’t have that kind of command over them.” Axel waves his hand in rejection of the idea. Marluxia was cunning, but he wasn’t that good. He was taken out by a fourteen year old, after all. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you were worried about me, boss.”</p>
<p>“You’re infuriating.” There’s a shake in Saïx’s voice that Axel doesn’t know how to interpret. For a moment, he thinks it might be anger; that would make sense. Axel should have reported in, he knows he should have and Saïx knows he knows; he has every reason to be angry. Then Axel finds golden eyes and it feels like he can’t breathe.</p>
<p>There are flecks of blue in the gold.</p>
<p>Concern draws Saïx’s eyebrows together. His expression is pained, as if he is almost feeling something but no matter what it is, he can only register it as hurt. Axel takes a step toward him. Saïx holds out a hand to stop Axel in his tracks.</p>
<p>“You’re all I have left.” Saïx’s voice is barely above a whisper. Axel almost thinks that he mishears him at first. He blinks numbly at Saïx, trying to process what he’s trying to say. “Can’t you see that? Can’t you see that your actions have consequences?”</p>
<p>“I…” Axel doesn’t know what to say. He steps in closer to Saïx, reaching out one hand as if to take Saïx’s own. He stops inches away, staring at the space between them as if he could will the gap to close. Axel swallows hard. “I wasn’t thinking about…”</p>
<p>You. The word hangs unspoken in the air between them, both a lie and a truth that hurts too much to say out loud. It is a lie in that Axel was thinking about Saïx, thinking about what they have become and how far from him he feels. How he doesn’t feel like anything without him. It’s a truth because he didn’t think about how his actions would affect Saïx. He didn’t really care.</p>
<p>“I know.” Saïx’s voice is ice. It makes the hole where Axel’s heart should be feel just the tiniest bit bigger. “I’ve come to expect that from you.”</p>
<p>Axel doesn’t have a response to that. He lets his hand fall to his side. The gap between them grows that much bigger.</p>
<p>Saïx straightens his shoulders, brushing past Axel as he leaves the room. Axel is staring at the grey of the wall again and it feels the same as staring at Saïx. Cold and unforgiving.</p>
<p>“Don’t do this again.” Saïx is all business. His voice sounds as distant as it always has when he talks to the other Organization members, as if he is so far above them and so very empty. “I expect prompt reports from now on.”</p>
<p>The grey of the wall seems to swim in front of Axel’s eyes. Can you cry when all you feel is numb?</p>
<p>“Number VIII?”</p>
<p>Axel flinches. Then he stiffens his shoulders and opens his mouth.</p>
<p>“Yes sir.”</p>
<p>----</p>
<p>Axel doesn’t know when he first started noticing the changes in Saïx. The way he snaps at Axel so easily. The way he seems to not be listening half the time, and knows too much the other half.</p>
<p>The way he stares at Axel with golden eyes so cold and distant, they could be the moon itself.</p>
<p>No, Axel doesn’t know when he first noticed it or when it started, but he does know when he gets sick of it. Roxas comes into his life, and then Xion, and between the two of them, Axel swears he starts to feel something again. He laughs easily and talks for hours about nothing and suddenly being human feels like it might not be so far away after all.</p>
<p>Saïx tries to stop him. Tries to talk him out of it. And Axel thinks that maybe he ought to listen. Saïx was his friend, once. Once, they were closer than Axel realized, two against the world and clinging to each other as that world crumbled and broke and expanded beyond anything they ever imagined. Saïx was his entire world.</p>
<p>But those days are over. Saïx’s eyes are all wrong and Axel can’t pretend that his words don’t hurt anymore. He can’t pretend that the threats and the lack of information and the secrets don’t make his chest ache like Saïx has thrust his claymore through him.</p>
<p>“You’ve changed.”</p>
<p>That’s what Saïx said. And maybe he was right. But if Axel has changed, Saïx has too, grown into someone that Axel can’t understand and doesn’t know how to live with anymore.</p>
<p>The grey of the Castle That Never Was closes in on them, crushing their relationship that never had a chance, and Axel only wishes that if he was going to be trapped in that piercing gaze for the rest of eternity he could drown in a sea of blue, rather than a sea of gold.</p>
<p>At least then he would know who the person he was looking at was.</p>
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